Eidos Outsourced Those Deux Ex: HR Boss Fights

[Earnest Cavalli]

Eidos Outsourced Those Deux Ex: HR Boss Fights


Remember that time you actually had to shoot a guy in Deus Ex: Human Revolution? Lame, right? Turns out that wasn't exactly Eidos Montreal's doing.

Meet Dr. Paul Kruszewski, president and founder of Grip Entertainment, "an independent Montreal based video game technology company" that was tapped by Eidos Montreal to craft the boss battles for Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

The same boss battles that the 'net has been complaining about since the game hit retail shelves.

In the course of that five-minute clip, Kruszewski refers to himself as a "shooter guy" and explains that Eidos Montreal essentially gave his firm the tech and gameplay design of the game, then let Grip craft boss fights based on that alone.

Unsurprisingly, the same 'net denizens who spent weeks complaining about these forced battles mucking up their otherwise stealth-based gaming experience have been gleefully linking this clip back and forth. "We've finally figured out why the boss fights suck! It was this guy! He did it!" the collective says, likely while rattling sabers, or gathering pitchforks.

I'm not about to dive into this "boss fight" controversy with my own opinion (hint: it involves dragons), but I feel for Dr. Kruszewski. In the course of a weekend, he and his company have become scapegoats for one of the gaming world's largest recent controversies, and some of the bile being flung in his direction would make Andrew Dice Clay blush.

Before you take to the comments to swear at Kruszewski for fulfilling his contractual obligations, keep in mind that Eidos Montreal was overseeing his work. As with strawberry jam, blame should always be spread evenly.

Source: EDGE [http://www.next-gen.biz/news/deus-exs-boss-battles-were-outsourced]

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[Saucycarpdog]

I don't know about that. The boss fights are easy if you know the cheap strategies to defeat them.

 

[Something Amyss]

It's not my fault! I paid someone to do it and slapped my name on it!

 

[Dragon Zero]

A "Big Controversy" really? That's what we can call a "Big Controversey" now? Lackluster boss fights? Well... I got nothing.

I'm sure I'd "get it" if I'd played either Human Revolution or the original Deus Ex, but I'm not entirely convinced of that fact. I agree with Earnest, the man just did his job, Eidos could just as easily told him to rework it or given him extra guidelines.

 

[bombadilillo]

1st boss had a rocketlauncher in the room outside of it...And if you dont have a sweet gun by the rest of them then its your own fault. I wish that you could not kill them though for a complete pacifist run. MGS4 style.

 

[Scizophrenic Llama]

I don't know about that. The boss fights are easy if you know the cheap strategies to defeat them.

I have to agree, although my cheap strategy was running around the room frantically and shooting a few times.

I don't see the point in outsourcing such a big part of the game. I'd like to imagine how those boss battles would be if they kept it in tune with the rest of the game.

 

[GeorgW]

Eidos dude 1: "People are disliking one thing about our amazing game! How can we avoid the criticism while still garnering the love from the rest of the game?"
Eidos dude 2: "Let's blame it on someone!"
Eidos dude 1: "Promote that man!"

This is all well and good, but it seems just a little too convenient. Still, I love Eidos, and the blame should be dealt equally.

 

[David Bray]

DLC is needed to fix this

 

[bombadilillo]

Obviously they didnt properly breif this company when they hired them. Like how you should make the game. And then play test it in the major playstyles and realise, you cant.

 

[Zhukov]

Oh, I'll spread the blame evenly all right.

Eidos Montreal, why would you do that? Why on Earth would you outsource the boss fights? There're set up as the climactic high points of the game. Why would you give them to someone else? And why wouldn't you slap that someone else across the head when they started going wrong?

*sigh*

Personally, the boss fights didn't piss me off that much. Even Barret and his one-hit-kill bullshit multi-nade attack. But there's no denying that they were completely at odds with the rest of the game.

 

[Feylynn]

Well then I thank that guy, I really enjoyed the boss fights.
They were a lot of fun and they were completely in design for me, sometimes pacifist stealth types are forced into situations they can't complete.
Adapt and survive.

Any other game has a challenge for all archetypes, the fire mage has trouble with dragons, the normal type has trouble with ghosts, the stealth hacker has trouble with direct confrontation, the guns blazing guy has trouble with delicate situations and being surrounded by many bullets.
Not all battle is fair, not all men control when they fight and die.

It's perfectly within your capabilities as a role player to pronounce Science Jensen permanently dead at the first boss fight and his story unexplored if it's more believable to you.

 

[Worgen]

What a strange thing to outsource, I mean I can understand outsourcing some of the landscape graphics and such but the boss battles? I mean don't those kind of need to flow with the game?

 

[MarsProbe]

1st boss had a rocketlauncher in the room outside of it...And if you dont have a sweet gun by the rest of them then its your own fault. I wish that you could not kill them though for a complete pacifist run. MGS4 style.

I'm almost at the second boss in my second playthrough and the "sweetest gun" I've picked up so far is the P.E.P.S gun. Which I do think is a rather neat weapon, anyway.

Didn't know about that rocket launcher. Anyway, there's really no need for it during the first boss fight. The exploding containers and toxic canisters do the job well enough on their own.

With regards to the boss battles, when in the run up to the games release, I heard about the "conversational boss battles" I thought that meant we were going to be able to talk the boss characters into submission and as such avoid fighting them. Maybe for the sequel. Something like that would be quite satisfying, perhaps a more refined version of that part in Mass Effect where (no, I'm not spoiler tagging this, if you care about what happens in Mass Effect 1, you should know already!) you get to talk Saren into topping himself instead of fighting you.

 

[Vuirneen]

Eidos decided to outsource part of their game - they have to take the fall for that decision. Maybe they were pushed for time, or something and handed over part of the game they hadn't done enough work on.

They still should have had someone oversee it and help to integrate it with the rest of the game.

 

[fates_puppet13]

the boss fights are not good but they're hardly deal breaking

 

[Korolev]

I didn't like the boss fights in DE:HR, but they weren't really any worse than many other boss fights in many other games. They didn't make me pick up my keyboard and throw it at my window. They didn't make me curse and splutter with rage whilst punching my monitor. They irked me a bit, but I pressed on. They're actually quite easy on normal, and they get easier as you progress in the game. The first boss was the hardest, the second boss was mildly difficult (unless you have typhoon in which case it's a joke) and the third and fourth boss fights were often easier to defeat than some rooms-with-guards areas in the game.

People are being entirely too sensitive about this. Were they a bit annoying? Yes. Are these boss segments responsible for higher taxes, the bad taste you get when you drink orange juice after brushing your teeth and the eventual heat-death of the universe? No. PERSPECTIVE people. Perspective. The game as a whole is a success. It's not perfect, not by a long shot, but I had fun playing it the three times I did. And you know what? After playing it a third time, I barely noticed the boss fights were even there. They're that short and far apart.